Firebase: Can't finde npm package

While trying npm install firebase-tools and executing firebase deploy in my deploy workflow I get the following error message:

#!/bin/bash -eo pipefail
firebase deploy --token=$FIREBASE_DEPLOY_TOKEN
/bin/bash: firebase: command not found
Exited with code 127

Installing globally with sudo npm -g firebase-tools has also lead to an error message, since I apparently don’t have the rights to do so.

Im glad, if anyone can help!

The circle.yml file we’re talking about looks like this:

version: 2
jobs:

  build-job:
docker:
  - image: circleci/node:9.5.0-stretch
steps:
  - checkout

  - restore_cache:
      keys:
        # Find a cache corresponding to this specific package.json checksum
        # when this file is changed, this key will fail
        - v1-npm-deps-{{ checksum "package.json" }}
        # Find the most recent cache used from any branch
        - v1-npm-deps-
  
  - run: npm install

  - save_cache:
      key: v1-npm-deps-{{ checksum "package.json" }}
      paths:
        - ./node_modules

  - run: npm run build

  deploy-job:
docker:
  - image: circleci/node:9.5.0-stretch
steps:
  - run: npm install firebase-tools
  - run:
      name: Deploy Master to Firebase
      command: firebase deploy --token=$FIREBASE_DEPLOY_TOKEN
           
workflows:
  version: 2
  
  -deploy:
jobs:
  - build-job:
      filters:
        branches:
          only: stage
  - deploy-job:
      filters:
        branches:
          only: master

I’d guess that npm installs the binary in a location not covered by the system PATH. Do you know what location npm installs things to - maybe /usr/local/bin? Find this out and then modify firebase to include the full path.

You can fail this job and connect with SSH to do some investigation, if that’s easier.

1 Like

Thank you for this hint! changing the command to
- run: name: Deploy Master to Firebase command: ./node_modules/.bin/firebase deploy --token=$FIREBASE_DEPLOY_TOKEN
has worked!

But now this command seems to be executed in the wrong location (not in the root folder): Error: Not in a Firebase app directory (could not locate firebase.json) Exited with code 1
Does anyone know how to solve that?

I assume the command will allow you to specify the app directory in a parameter/switch. Try it locally with --help to see what the available options are.

Or, given that the command seems to be sensitive to the dir it is run from, you could do:

ln -s ./node_modules/.bin/firebase . && \
    ./firebase deploy --token=$FIREBASE_DEPLOY_TOKEN

That will create a symlink in your app folder and then run the symlink.